Research and Publications:

Matt Fisher joined North Carolina State University in January 2014 as a Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster hire in Translational Regenerative Medicine. He is an Assistant Professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at NCSU and UNC-Chapel Hill. His long-term research goal is to utilize quantitative metrics and engineering principles to understand why individual tissue engineering and regenerative medicine approaches succeed within the body and employ this knowledge to develop superior technologies, with a strong focus on orthopaedic soft tissues. Specific areas of interest include bioscaffolds, prediction of outcomes following implantation, and assessment of function following treatment.

Understanding Post-Natal Musculoskeletal Soft Tissue Growth in the Porcine ModelRecent work has focused on understanding musculoskeletal soft tissue growth within the context of the knee joint. Initial studies have focused on the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), an increasingly common injury in children and adolescents. The porcine model has been used to study knee joint growth via MR imaging and histological, biochemical, and biomechanical analyses.3D Printing for Fibrous Soft Tissue Regeneration

This project focuses on applying engineering principles to study the use of 3D printing to create fibrous soft tissue replacements. The goal is to develop a “design space” that relates variables of 3D printed structures (strand spacing, base material, etc.) to in-vitro and in-vivo tissue formation. Our initial work has evaluated the impact of strand spacing (pore size) on the resulting matrix formation in-vivo. Combined with information on other variables (e.g. polymer materials, mechanical properties, etc.), we hope to be able to tailor the design of 3D printed scaffolds for soft tissue regeneration.